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Post a Comment On: Steve Sailer: iSteve

"Malcolm Gladwell is holding a vote"

7 Comments -

1 – 7 of 7
Blogger Steve Sailer said...

Knock yourself out!

12/11/06, 8:16 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

In some respects, the auto industry (though not individual dealers) discriminates against whites. For instance, Toyota can take a perfectly fine Camry, add a few fancy touches, and sell it asa Lexus for several thousand dollars more. Needless to say, Toyota reaps substantially more profit from the Lexus as it does from the Camry.
Saving one's money and buying the Camry is generally the more rational decision given the price differential and the relatively small differences between the vehicles. Driving the Lexus is a mainly a way of showing off one's status and professional success - and it's mostly whites who succumb to that temptation.

Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights

12/11/06, 9:13 AM

Anonymous tggp said...

Peter, is that truly discriminating against whites? If what (certain) whites want is the status that comes from buying and owning a fancy expensive car, doing this is heeding the rule that "the customer is always right". Perhaps if the dealers were leading whites away from Camrys to prevent them from making a comparison but not trying to prevent others from purchasing Camrys you'd have a case. However, that would still be the dealers discriminating rather than "the auto industry". It would seem somewhat difficult for the industry to discriminate against people they aren't going to actually encounter just through their car design.

12/11/06, 9:18 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's clearly not explicit discrimination. On the other hand, using the status-anxiety angle to sell slightly facier vehicles at a big markup - and luxury brands like Lexus milk this angle for all it's worth* - does, in a sense, discriminate against the status-conscious. Yes, it keeps the customers satisfied, but so does the practice of selling cars at little or no discount to black men who want to be perceived as big spenders.

* = a current Lexus ad shows about 25 people standing outside a house in a very upscale suburban neighborhood to watch their neighbor lead his blindfolded wife outside and show her the Christmas gift he got her - a new Lexus sitting in the driveway. It's postively dripping with status consciousness.

Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights

12/11/06, 9:59 AM

Blogger Ron Guhname said...

Saying that black men like to be seen as big spenders is a smear? Maybe you think so if you're a penny-pinching Scrooge, and so you take that view to be an insult. Not everyone in the history of the world has thought it's attractive to be known as the guy who pays a nickel less than everyone else. Many cultures and subcultures have viewed penny-pinching as dishonorable.

12/11/06, 3:13 PM

Anonymous A.L. said...

Who cares? Gladwell is a fraud, well if not a fraud then a terrific con artist. He has repackaged old ideas and sells them as insight, what a farce.

12/11/06, 4:21 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The auto example is kind of amusing really. I recall taking a course not that long ago on optimal communication with one's customers. One of the central pillars of this course was that customers generally had one of several motivations that drove their behavior and their emotional response to your offers. The big ones were status, price, security, convenience, and discovery (defined in that context as a longing for the 'latest and greatest'). Methods of identifying the primary motives of the customer were discussed (primarily it is in the language that the customer uses when talking about their desires). But status was a huge one, and my favorite customers have status as a primary and convenience as a secondary :-> You'd be surprised just how common that motive pairing is.

12/11/06, 4:59 PM

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